Damn Chase's ability to say everything with a straight face. His interactions with Shinnosuke and Go in the canteen seriously cracks me up. And he actually went and gave a dictionary definition of what "buds" is.

Geez Kiriko, stop screaming in the battle field. It's not helping anyone anything, and you're turning into a damsel in distress.

Oh my god my Chase baby. And I'm glad they didn't immediately jump to Tomari hating Chase or vice versa. But at the end the lesson he leaves these talks with is "Kiriko can't love a non-human" noooo chase it's okaaay

So... Brain gets reset next episode too? For what purpose? I thought he was happy with where he's ended up but guess not. I suppose he's going to argue that being based in logic, he'll never properly understand emotion.

we are here to take the blame; to take the taunts and live the shame
we are here to make you feel; it terrifies you, but it's real

Anyhow, since this is really a setup episode to part 2, I'm not sure how much to penalize it for leaving so many things open, and how much to let slide.

First off, the Special Defense Center comes out of nowhere. I was outright confused with the opening scene here. The police suddenly have the ability to destroy cores? I hope this is going somewhere. Otherwise I guess it's how they'll get rid of 19 more Roidmude in just 7 more episodes? (Do we have a movie death tally, BTW?)

As for the Kiriko/Shinnouske/Chase love triangle, I can't help but feel disappointed. Last week's setup was great, and now they've suddenly gone off on a crazy tangent. It feels like having Shinnouske fawn over Kiriko is just something to burn the clock. Their depicted relationship since day one has been siblings/co-workers, not romantic in any sense. They wouldn't have kept the Chase sub-plot running for so long if they were going to end it here, so it's all one big red herring. Meanwhile I can't help but think this cheapens Kiriko's character after so long by making her something to be desired/protected.

On the other hand Go is taking it relatively well. Though perhaps this is because he doesn't accept the seriousness of the situation.

Meanwhile I liked the bit with Belt-san and Shinnouske, despite the above. Belt-san has become softer, less commanding, and more trusting of Shinnouske over the series. It's good character growth. Maybe, just maybe, with 004, he can get his body back in a roundabout way?

Also, is it me or is the Roidmude stuff in this episode was a bit off? Though I admittedly can't put my thumb on why. Heart being forced to cooperate with Banno to save Medic makes sense. But maybe the Brain backstory combined with the Krim-004 reveal is coming at the wrong time?

Finally, the action in this episode was well done, as little as there was. I'm always a sucker for "a cluster of enemies hanging on to a moving vehicle" set pieces, and having it happen to Brain of all people really delivered. And Banno's reaction to not being able to steal Shinnouske's shift car was expected, but still amusing. However it seems forced stupidity to lo-jack the cars and the trailer, but not the rest of the weapons.

They did explain the Special Defense Center by 001 delaying its deployment. I imagined Rinna has been fine tuning the gear that she gave to Kiriko awhile back. They probably can defeat the grunts but probably not the Reapers or the evolved Roidmudes. Speaking of Rinna, she probably hasn't gotten around to coat the other weapons and probably should coat the vehicles as well.

The scenes of Tomari and Chase and Chase with Gou is more entertaining to me than it should be.

And I feel with this episode that the pace is picking back up. Though the enemy premise is still very weak.

I feel that if Banno's character, through the unrevealed evidence of string of cases the Special Cases Department comes upon with the Roimudes, would have been better if he was given more development that drives home that he is truely evil. This was expounded upon with Kiriko to Tomari and Belt-san in two episodes before-ish. But this was a slight blurb into how disturbed Banno really is. Hell, he maybe even more disturbed than we even thought, but nevertheless, he is painted as a standard very evil bad guy.

He could have been on parallel with Ryoma from Gaim. But I just don't feel this enemy's threat. Sure he managed to reverse engineer Krim's system and is using it, but the fights with him just do not scream impactful or sense of urgency to quickly combat Banno before he achieves his goal, that we will never know why he wishes to do the second Global Freeze to begin with.

I appreciate Heart's consistent characteristic of keeping sentiment of his fellow Roimudes. But Brain... He has gone back to the bumbling fool that he was when Medic was first introduced. Which would be quicker, to ultimate evolve the leftover Roimudes, or to subjugate Brain. I am guessing it is the latter and somehow Tomari and crew will have sentiments for Brain.

On a meta note, I've noticed this for a few episodes now, but forum commentary for Drive releases is way, way down. There are only 7 replies to this thread with not even half of the regulars accounted for. And it has consistently between this way for weeks now.

I'm really curious why we're seeing this slowdown. Has overall viewership gone down? Or is there just little to say about a show that isn't awesome, but isn't awful either?

I would often try to place a comment for each episode. Whether it's about the episode itself or the commercials, I sometimes like to say a little something. But my excuse, I have been trying to catch up on other shows/movies that by the time I have a chance to watch Drive, it's already been a few weeks since its release and I just feel that my comments will be something that's "outdated."

In this case, I have been watching the entire series of "Breaking Bad" (5 seasons worth) and just finished earlier today. Took 2 weeks to watch them all. So here I am playing catch up with all of TV Nihon's recent releases.

So for me, it wasn't necessary about summer. Just had other commitments I needed to finish first.

BTW, I'm enjoying the love triangle. Not sure if they are going to choose the typical, "Currently, I am placing all my love to...........my job."